Irving v. Lipstadt

Transcripts

Further down, for over three years this 1well-funded team sitting opposite me, next to me, has 2drilled down deep into my private papers, burrowed on a 3broad front into the archives of the world and a 4multi-pronged attack trying to establish that what I have 5written over the last 35 or more years is distorted or 6mistranslated in pursuance of an agenda, namely the 7exoneration of Adolf Hitler, trying to dig up every little 8morsel of dirt on me that that can. 9 My book Hitler's War was published by the Viking 10Press in New York and by Hodder and Stoughton in this 11country in 1977. That is when what can be seen as the 12coordinated attack on the book began. The Viking Press 13was and is one of that nation's most reputable publishers 14and in fact I believe they are owner of the first 15Defendant company in this case. 16 Turning the page now, the Anti-defamation League 17issued a report with more fervour than accuracy, saying: 18"David Irving is the nom de plume of John Cawdell" -- 19this not true, I hasten to say, do not get it wrong, it is 20totally untrue -- "a revisionist historiographer of Adolf 21Hitler, particularly regarding Hitler's role in and 22knowledge of the mass extermination of European Jewry. 23His major premise", says the Anti-defamation League, "is 24that Hitler was largely oblivious to the large scale 25killings of Jews in the death camps". 26 I carry on: The agent's report -- this is a

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1report put out in 1977. 2MR JUSTICE GRAY: I wonder, Mr Irving, really whether one might 3just go to the middle of page 35 without doing any 4injustice to your case. 5MR IRVING: Yes. When I then began my lecturing activities 6around the United States in the early 1980s, speaking at 7private functions, schools and universities, the 8headquarters of the ADL sent out a secret circular, a 9"Backgrounder", in 1983, to all their local agents. The 10backgrounder, dated July 6th 1983, began with the words, 11"British author David Irving has been of concern to ADL, 12as well as to the Jewish community generally, since the 131977 publication of his book Hitler's War", and it 14indicated that it was the controversy over Hitler and the 15Jews that was the reason. We have heard of similar such 16circulars being generated by them on other famous names. 17In my case the ADL instructed its"regional offices": 18"Should he surface in your region, please 19notify the Fact Finding Department and your Civil Rights 20Co-ordinator". 21 It is quite plain that the ADL were not 22concerned with promoting civil rights. I am mentioning 23them because of course that collaborated very closely with 24the Second Defendant in the preparation of the book that 25is the subject of this trial. 26 It is quite plain that the Anti-defamation

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1League were not concerned with promoting civil rights, but 2in abrogating one of the most basic rights of all, the 3right to freedom of speech. 4 Further down, correspondence with my literary 5agent showed by 1984 that already the international smear 6campaign was inflicting substantial financial damage on 7me. It was at precisely this time, 1984 -- I will not 8comment on the year -- that the Second Defendant, then 9teaching in the Near Eastern Languages Centre of the 10University of California at Los Angeles, Professor 11Lipstadt, offered her services to Yehuda Bauer in 12Jerusalem, a very well known Israeli Professor. She 13attached "A proposal for research: The Historical and 14Historiographic Methodology of the Holocaust 15revisionists". This was the genesis of the book that we 16are complaining about. I ask your Lordship to note that 17on page 38 of the synopsis prepared by the Second 18Defendant, which is in my bundle E at page 38, The Second 19Defendant, Professor Lipstadt, mentioned my name in the 20following words: "They [the deniers] also find it 21expedient to associate themselves with those such as David 22Irving who do not deny that the Holocaust took place but 23seek to shift the blame to others." 24 To conclude this, on the matter of her 25employment: on May 31, 1988 Professor Lipstadt was 26awarded and additional agreement for research on this

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1topic by the Vidal Sassoon Centre for the study of 2Anti-Semitism at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. So 3at all material times, the book was being commissioned by 4that University in Jerusalem. This research, it should be 5added, was what finally bore fruit as the book complained 6of, "Denying the Holocaust". The publisher at that time 7was to be Mr Robert Maxwell, who was liaising with 8Professor Yehuda Bauer. 9 Briefly summarizing the next page: During this 10period the international campaign against me achieved some 11ugly successes. I was illegally deported from Austria. 12The Austrian government had to pay me compensation when it 13was overturned. 14 The Second Defendant's discovery -- lower down 15that page -- which included such correspondence with, and 16items from, the Anti-Defamation League as she has seen fit 17to provide, throws some interesting lights on the ADL. 18When a local newspaper, The Daily Pilot, published in 19Orange County, south of Los Angeles, a report on a 20function of the Institute of Historical Review, about 21which we have heard much from the Defence in the last few 22weeks. The anti-Defamation League was horrified as the 23regional office reported, to find that the reporter in the 24newspaper, and I quote "seems to find an air of legitimacy 25surrounding the group". That word "legitimacy" again; 26remember they were going to destroy my legitimacy? The

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1reporter, Mr Bob Van Eyken, who had evidently not got the 2message, even described the IHR members as "neatly dressed 3... evoking a sense of reasoned dignity". This clearly 4clashed with the skinheaded, jackbooted extremist 5stereotype that the ADL, like the expert witnesses in this 6case, wished to promote for the IHR and other "right-wing" 7groups. This material, though clearly discoverable in 8this action, was withheld from discovery by the Second 9Defendant until a summons was issued to produce all her 10correspondence with the ADL. 11 We know that the Second Defendant has had 12extensive dealings with the Anti-Defamation League, the 13ADL, this American body. Even from her own limited 14discovery, about the deficiencies in which I still have 15more to say, we know that Professor Lipstadt was provided 16with smear dossiers by them. She thanks them in her 17Introduction. She made not attempt to verify the contents 18of this material with me as the victim (or, so far as this 19court knows, with any others), but she recklessly 20published it raw and unchecked. A 25-cent phone call to 21me would have saved her endless trouble. Instead she 22preferred to rely on these sheets like the "confidential" 23and defamatory four-page item dated October 23rd 1986, 24headed: "Profile on Dave Irving", evidently coming from 25another Canadian body. Characteristically, the "profile" 26was disclosed to me by her solicitors without any covering